Category Archives: Hope College Flying Dutchmen

It appeared that Kalamazoo College and Hope College were headed to overtime Thursday evening, but a goal by sophomore forward Libby Munoz with 32.6 seconds remaining gave Kalamazoo a 1-0 victory. Watch the goal here.

In a rematch of last season’s MIAA tournament championship, depending champion Kalamazoo College hosted and defeated Hope College 8-7 in ten innings, taking the #2 vs #3 seed first round game. It was the first-ever home tournament game for the Hornets and it had no shortage of drama. A full box score and recap can be found here

Kalamazoo led most of the contest, getting a run in the first inning and two in the second. The Flying Dutchmen plated one in the fourth and one in the seventh, followed by a Hornet run in the bottom of the seventh. Hope grabbed the lead on four runs in the top of the eighth inning, but three in the bottom of the frame put Kalamazoo again ahead.

Hope tied it at 7-7 in the top of the ninth on a Mason Opple RBI single. Kalamazoo loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but couldn’t cash in, forcing extras. In the bottom of the tenth, Jordan Wiley gave Kalamazoo a lead-off double. After a hit batsman, the single-season Hornet RBI record holder, Ian Kobernick, brought in his 51st run of the season for the 8-7 victory. Relieve the final at-bat here:

When these squads last met, it was for the MIAA Conference tournament championship. After splitting two meetings in the tournament, the Hornets took the decisive third game 3-1 and secured their first ever trip to the NCAA tournament. In total last season, Kalamazoo and Hope met seven times with the Dutchmen winning three of four in the regular season.

So far this spring, the squads have similar records. The Hornets are 11-6 overall and 4-4 in MIAA play, while the Dutchmen are 12-6 overall and 5-3 in the MIAA. Kalamazoo is tied for fourth with Calvin, while Hope is sitting third behind Adrian (7-1) and Trine (6-2). The Hornets started league play with a four-game sweep of Albion, followed by a four-game sweep at the hands of Adrian. The Dutchmen began their conference slate by taking three of four over Alma, then splitting four against Calvin.
Video coverage will be provided by the K-College Livestream for the games at Kalamazoo, now set for Monday. Saturday’s games for Hope are still on the schedule for now.